Madden is consistently one of the top-selling games each year. The long-running gridiron series isn't just a commercial success, it is also well-regarded by critics. Though Sega fans will jeer its induction into IGN's Top 25 Franchises, Madden has made a significant impact in the games industry. In many ways, Madden has proven the gateway game to an addictive habit. The mass appeal draws in those who might not normally play videogames. And once they have their Madden fix, they are likely to expand their horizons and try other games. Love it or hate it, Madden is one of the most important franchises in gaming and also one of the best.

Dungeons & Dragons is perhaps the most extensive franchise on PC. It began to boom with a series of well-regarded and highly-successful games based on Forgotten Realms. It has since grown to include some of the best games of the past ten years, including Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Planescape: Torment. Aside from dozens of great games, D&D has heavily influenced North American RPGs. BioWare and many other developers continue to create games with combat systems based off Dungeons & Dragons. We can even see the influence of choosing your alignment on RPGs today. Games such as Fable and Knights of the Old Republic asking you to choose between good and evil is no different than when players first decide if they want to be Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil.

Grand Theft Auto drove onto the gaming landscape back in 1998, although it hardly resembled the sandbox, do-whatever-you-want game it is today. The first two GTAs were top-down driving games that focused almost entirely on stealing cars. But then Grand Theft Auto III came along and changed everything. The third entry in the series took the franchise into the third dimension and created the mold that countless, lesser games would copy for years. Of course, it also gave politicians the bulls-eye they needed to blame videogames for the downfall of civilization. No other gaming franchise has been more in the public eye the past five years, for better or worse.

When Street Fighter II hit in 1991, it changed the face of arcade games for nearly a decade to follow. Street Fighter II introduced, among other innovations, combos (by accident, nonetheless!) and the now-standard half/quarter circle and charge moves found in countless other fighting games. More than any fighting game, Street Fighter created a cast of memorable characters and attacks. Who doesn't think of bulbous thighs and flurries of kicks when hearing the name Chun-Li? Street Fighter may not have been the first fighting game ever, but it certainly established the paradigm that the genre has stuck to ever since it was first released. Games like Mortal Kombat, King of Fighters, and Virtua Fighter all borrow heavily from the franchise. The original Street Fighter II is a game that we still play daily around the office (until our arcade cabinet broke, that is).

When it comes to the world of videogames, few franchises have been as prolific as Star Wars. Every new Star Wars game that gets released is a sure-fire hit, partly due to the strength of the brand name, but also due to the indisputable quality of many of the games in the series. The first Star Wars game, The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600, expertly captured the essence of the snowy Hoth sequences despite the technical limitations of the system. Later entries in the series expanded on the ideas in this game to encapsulate the entirety of the expanded Star Wars Universe. Despite the fact that (hopefully) the movie series has ended, the videogames will continue drawing audiences for years to come.

The brainchild of videogame luminary Sid Meier, the Civilization series pioneered the turn-based strategy genre through its addictive mix of exploration, economics, warfare, research, and diplomacy. The first game in the series charged players with building a "legacy that would stand the test of time." Later games greatly expanded on the formula of the first game, but still retained the same deep gameplay. Civilization games are so notorious for their addictive nature that an alarm clock was included in Civilization IV, alerting payers when they may have played the game for too long. Of course, we always played with the alarm off, we can't stand anything interrupting our Civ time.

Brainchild of Will Wright, the Sim franchise has proven one of the most influential in gaming history. It began in 1989 with the release of SimCity. The Sim games challenged players intellectual, rather than testing their dexterity. These were rare games that could not be won or lost, merely experienced. Eventually, Sim left the realm of the inorganic and tackled simulating normal life. When EA released The Sims in 2000, it became an instant hit and became the best-selling PC title of all time. Wright's design ingenuity created a powerful franchise that continues to be among the most popular in gaming.

When it released in 1987, Metroid introduced gamers to the original strong female protagonist. The game was beloved not only for its intense shooting mechanics, but also its expansive alien planets that could be explored in a nonlinear fashion. With Metroid Prime, the series made its transition into 3D for the first time -- and in first-person no less! Hardcore fans were wary of this shift until they were placed inside Samus's formidable powersuit and saw the world through her visor. Immediately, gamers everywhere were enthralled by the game's immersive worlds and gargantuan bosses. Metroid may not quite have the same name recognition as Mario or Zelda, but it is inarguably one of the strongest franchises of all time.

Few franchises on this list can claim to have almost single-handedly created a new genre in videogames. But that's what Resident Evil did when it debuted on the PlayStation in 1996. The series has since spread across every platform available and even into movie theatres with two (surprisingly) successful films. Many games have imitated Resident Evil's formula, but none have truly captured its unique blend of spooky exploration and head shots. And just when the franchise seemed to be running out of steam, Resident Evil 4 reinvented the genre it created with one of the finest examples of modern gaming.

A successful and beloved series of fantasy RTS games, Warcraft became a phenomenon with the release of the MMORPG World of Warcraft. Set in the same universe as the original three RTS titles, WOW vividly brought the world of Azeroth to life. Now boasting more than 7.5 million subscribers worldwide, World of Warcraft has become enough of a pop culture phenomenon to merit the satire from Comedy Central's South Park. Warcraft's RTS history certainly earned it a place as one of the top 25 franchises, but it's WOW that propelled it into the top 10.